3G that goes the distance - and fast - is on offering from Telstra.

Ericsson and Telstra are moving with surprising speed to provide, errm, surprising speeds with their Next G UMTS/WCDMA cellular broadband. Now the 14.4Mbit/s upgrade has been activated, which is an impressive figure by itself for wireless.

However, the cell site reach has been extended substantially, with Telstra and Ericsson saying 200km is no problem. At that distance, people still get 2.3Mbit/s downloads as well. If the technology does indeed deliver (and I believe there's no widely available customer devices yet), it sounds like a technology that ought to make its way over to New Zealand.

TelstraClear, which will soon drop the last bit of its moniker apparently, is in dire need of a compelling product that people want instead of resold Telecom connections... why not take a leaf out of the Aussies' book and spend the money to build a fast 3G network?